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Airborne 03.31.15

Says FAA Is Defying GAO Recommendations

The following was released Friday by
the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA):

In a move that further jeopardizes the safety and efficiency of
America's aviation system, the Federal Aviation Administration has
terminated a vital program that ensured critical cooperation
between America's air traffic controllers and the agency. The move,
which comes against the recommendations of the Government
Accountability Office and coincides with a House of
Representatives' vote against reckless agency cuts, is just the
latest attack on the previously productive partnership between air
traffic controllers and the FAA.

The FAA's action, delivered to NATCA this week in a terse,
79-word fax, confirms the termination of its controller liaison
program. The remaining nine controllers from an original group of
30 will be sent home July 29. The controllers had been working on
vital technical projects with the agency, from the en route
modernization program to runway safety technology like the Airport
Surface Detection Equipment.

The move is a shocking rebuke to the
GAO, which, in a November 2004 report titled "FAA Needs To Ensure
Better Coordination When Approving Air Traffic Control Systems,"
emphasized the need to involve controllers "early and throughout
FAA's ground systems approval process." The report found that when
the FAA did not involve controllers and technical experts, its new
air traffic control systems experienced cost over-runs and schedule
delays.

The FAA's decision to terminate the liaison program also comes
despite the fact that the program has routinely demonstrated
success and has been commended by FAA management officials
themselves. NATCA liaisons have previously been described by FAA
management as, "an integral part in getting many projects deployed"
and "an asset to the program."

"It should be clear now to Congress and the flying public that
this agency's leaders are more concerned with saying the National
Airspace System is safe than in actually working to make sure it is
safe," National Air Traffic Controllers Association President John
Carr said. "The agency's action, on the eve of their contract talks
with controllers, is further proof of a total disregard for the
value of collaborative relationships with its own employees. While
discarding safety at the front door, they continue to destroy the
trust that once defined the relationship between FAA and America's
air traffic controllers. It is time for the FAA to remember that
only through collaboration with controllers will it be possible to
modernize the National Airspace System to achieve smart, safe,
effective results."

The agency's action is particularly
surprising, coming as it does just one day after Russ Chew, the
chief operating officer of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization,
praised the collaborative effort that marked the successful
implementation of new technology at New York Center that provides
satellite coverage of oceanic air traffic. Chew said, "I want to
thank the technicians and controllers, the unions and management
which made this happen."

Concluded Carr: "Our dedicated controller liaisons came to
Washington to serve their organization, their National Airspace
System and their country and sought only to ensure that the FAA's
efforts to modernize the system resulted in equipment and
procedures that were safe for the flying public and usable for
their fellow controllers. To be summarily dismissed in the heat of
their employers' war against this union only proves that this
agency is indeed putting politics ahead of passenger safety. That's
wrong for the FAA, wrong for air traffic controllers, and, above
all, wrong for the safety of the flying public."